Continuous food cooking device

ABSTRACT

A conveyor moves a train of food items, particularly meat items mounted on skewers, at a substantially constant rate past a heat source of substantially constant intensity toward a discharge point where the food items are collected. The conveyor has indicia marked along the path it traverses indicating predetermined starting points on the conveyor for the food items. The indicia correlate the distances from the starting points to the discharge point with an identifying characteristic of a food item first entered on the conveyor at such starting points, for example, the type of food to be cooked, the extent it is to be cooked, and the like. Preferably, detachable skewer means support the food items on the conveyor and have indicia cooperating with the indicia spaced along the path of travel of the conveyor.

United States Patent [191 Zenos CONTINUOUS FOOD COOKING DEVICE Inventor:Steven Zenos, 1520 Sagebrush Trail,

SE, Albuquerque, N. Mex.

Filed: May 24, 1971 Appl. No.: 146,157

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS McGlaughlin ..99/427 Hooper..99/443 C X Rankin ..'....99/443 C X Naxon ..99/342 X Dight ...99/343UX Juvan ..99/343 Surks ..99/420 111 3,734,740 [451 May 22, 19733,338,156 8/ 1967 Angelos ..9-9/427 Primary Examiner-Billy J. WilhiteAssistant Examiner-Arthur 0. Henderson Attorney-Wesley B. Taylor [57]ABSTRACT A conveyor moves a train of food items, particularly meat itemsmounted on skewers, at a substantially constant rate past a heat sourceof substantially constant intensity toward a discharge point where thefood items are collected. The conveyor has indicia marked along the pathit traverses indicating predetermined starting points on the conveyorfor the food items. The indicia correlate the distances from thestarting points to the discharge point with an identifyingcharacteristic of a food item first entered on the conveyor at suchstarting points, for example, the type of food to be cooked, the extentit is to be cooked, and the like. Preferably, detachable skewer meanssupport the food items on the conveyor and have indicia cooperating withthe indicia spaced along the path of travel of the conveyor.

21 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented y 22, 1973 3,134,140

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. STEVEN ZE/VOS BY L HMMLR'L 64L A TTORNEYSPatented May 22, 1973 3,734,740

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR, STEVEN ZE/VOS 50 BY 5 d 5 .5 f/mim +GD'LATTORNEYS l. CONTINUOUS FOOD COOKING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONhim. The so-called fast-food outlets and franchises which have become sopopular and accepted particularly accentuate these problems.

characteristically, a restaurant has short periods of time, such as thenoon hour, when it is extremely busy separated by relatively longerperiods of inactivity. It is difficult for a chef to fill a large numberof orders within a short space of time and even more difficult to insurethat at least a large number of the food orders are cooked reasonablyclose to the manner of preparation requested by customers. In practice,orders frequently are not filled properly and, during the press offilling and delivering many orders, waitresses often serve orders to thewrong diners. Further, since the volume of orders that can be handled bythe usual staffs within a restaurant is definitely limited, it alsohappens that unserved customers leave rather than wait unduly forservice, resulting in loss of sales to a restaurant.

Moreover, orders that are placed often are not prepared in the mannerrequested, for example, anywhere from rare to well done in the case ofmeats. In part, this is due to the rush of orders and limited cookingfacilities such that a well-done meat item is served in a medium-donecondition. But failure to cook food items as ordered is also due to thenon-uniform treatment and varying cooking skills of the chefs whoprocess the food. The degree of cooking as observed by the eye islargely a matter of judgement in which not all agree. Accordingly, evenshould an order be placed and later delivered to the rightful diner, itis not unusual for the diner to be dissatisfied with its manner ofpreparation.

It would, therefore, advance the art to provide means for cooking fooditems quickly in order to provide an increased, rapid turnoveroperation, and yet one which also uniformly cooked the food to a degreedesired, whatever it may be, and one which insured serving the food tothe diner who ordered it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a continuous,sequential flow of food items along a predetermined path of travel pasta heat source to a release or discharge point under conditions ofsubstantially constant rate of travel and substantially constant heatintensity, so that the length of travel time as measured from thedischarge point imparts an identifying characteristic to the food itemsuch as the degree of cooking desired or necessary. To render theoperation completely uniform and to provide reproducible results,regardless of the personnel involved, indicia are marked along the pathof travel indicating predetermined points of initial entry for variousfood items. These indicia are placed so that the distance from thedischarge to a selected indicia bears a relationship to thecharacteristic of the food item, usually after it has been cooked.

Preferably, an endless conveyor transports the food items seriatim alongtheir path of travel, and skewers on the conveyor support the food itemswith respect to the conveyor. The skewers may be detachably mounted onthe conveyor and released with their food items after a single passalong the heat source to be temporarily collected with otherfood-bearing skewers. For this purpose, the skewers preferably also haveindicia which cooperate with the indicia marked along the path of travelof the conveyor to indicate a characteristic identification of the fooditem. These characteristic identifications include, for example, thetype of food item treated, such as beef as opposed to pork, the degreeto which the item has been cooked, customeridentification, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings illustrate apresently preferred embodiment in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of one form of the conveyor cookingapparatus, one side of a supporting framework being removed for purposesof illustration;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1 on the plane of the line 2-2 and showsseveral food-supporting skewers in place; 1

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of a discharge station at theright-hand end of the conveyor as viewed in FIG. 1 and illustrates therelease of skewers and their food items from the conveyor;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 on the line 4-4;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged side, elevational view of the conveyor of FIG. 1and shows indicia placed along a side of the conveyor;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a skewer piercing a food item and ready tobe mounted on the conveyor of FIG. 1; 7

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a modified form of a skewer that may beused;

FIG. 8 is a left-hand end view of the skewer of FIG. 7 and shows oneform of indicia that may be used on the skewer; and

FIG. 9 is a left-hand end view of a skewer, as viewed in FIGS. 6 or 7,and illustrates still another form of indicia that may be used on askewer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Structure Referring to thedrawings, a framework generally indicated at F comprises a sturdy,rectangular base 10 supporting rear and forward end plates, 11 and 12,respectively, and two parallel side plates 13 which extend forwardly andterminate in downwardly slanting edges 14 (FIG. 1) having spaced,upstanding stop rods 15. A pair of shelves l6 and i7 is secured to theend plates 11 and 12 as by angle irons, rigidifying the structure andsupporting other structural parts as hereinafter described.

A pair of shafts 18 is suitably mounted for rotation in the side plates13. Each shaft has two fixed, spaced apart sprockets 20. A link chain 21is trained around aligned sprockets for each shaft to define a conveyorgenerally indicated at C. The chains are translated by conventionalmeans, the upper flight traveling to the right as viewed in FIG. 1. Forexample, an electric motor 22 supported by shelf 16 drives the rearwardshaft 18 by a conventional sprocketand chain drive, represented at 23,that is connected to a sprocket (not shown) on the rearward shaft 18.The chains 21 should be driven at a substantially constant rate ofspeed. To this end, motor 22 may be a synchronous motor. Other types ofspeed control means may be used such as speed governors.

A series of U-shaped skewer supports 24 is fixed as by rivets to eachchain 21. The facing edges of the fingers of the U-shape are reverselycurved as shown in FIG. 3 to facilitate entry and release of a skewer.The supports 24 are uniformly spaced along each chain 21 and alignedtransversely of the conveyor chain with like supports of the otherchain.

A heat source of substantially constant intensity is mounted adjacentthe conveyor chains 21 and adapted to radiate heat toward the spacebetween the chains over an appreciable length of the travel of the upperflight. In the embodiment shown, shelf 16 supports an open grid or grate25 carrying a number of refractory rocks 26 which are capable of beingheated to high temperatures without damage and then to radiate heat intoa cooking zone or region between the chains 21. The refractory rocks 26substantially cover the perforate bottom of the grate 25.

The embodiment shown includes gas burners to heat the rocks 26. A maingas manifold 27 enters laterally of the framework F and extendslongitudinally (FIG. 4) of the grate 25 to feed a series of transverselydisposed, standard gas burners 28. The heat generated should besubstantially uniform. This is one reason refractory rocks 26 arepreferred rather than exposing food items to the bare, fluctuating gasflame. The rocks tend to radiate heat more uniformly. However, standardgas pressure regulators can be installed in the manifold 27 to aid inproviding a constant throughput of combustible gas and in this mannerassist in providing uniform heat. Similarly, oil burners and an oil feedcan be used. Alternatively, electrical heaters may be employed in whichthe temperature is controlled by known thermostatic means. A warmingoven 30 is placed in a collecting zone Z and below the forward ends ofside plates 13 (FIG. 1). Preferably the warming oven is a standardinfrared heating unit. A vent 31 carries away cooking odors and heatedvapors.

Indicia stationed along the path of travel of the conveyor C indicate aplurality of predetermined starting points for the food items, suchindicia correlating the distance from such starting points to the end ofthe conveyor with an identifying characteristic of a food item firststarted on the conveyor at such predetermined starting points. FIG.illustrates a variety of such starting points for different food items.In this case, three different meats are considered, namely, pork, ham,and beef, although other food items could be represented. For each meat,points of entry are indicated relative to the final degree of cookingsought. For example, reading in a direction toward the exit end of theconveyor C, there are for each meat areas indicating W" or well done";MW or medium well done; MR" or "medium rare;" and R" or rare. Evenwithin each area there is dome latitude in which one has a choice atwhich precise point the meat should first be placed.

To facilitate recognition, the type of meat may be indicated by colorindicia. Thus, in FIG. 5, port is indicated by the color green; ham, byblue; and beef, by silver. Similarly, the various entry points on theconveyor for each meat are shown by color. The degree of cooking of welldone" is indicated by the color gold; medium well done, by the colorbrown; medium rare, by the color violet; and "rare," by the color red.

Skewer or spit means are adapted to receive and support food items withrespect to the conveyor and preferably are detachably mounted on theconveyor. FIG. 6 illustrates one type of skewer comprising a stake orrod 32 which pierces a food item 33. The ends of the stake 32 dropbetween the fingers of the U-shaped skewer supports 24. Preferably, theskewers rotate as they move along the conveyor. This may be accomplishedby a gear 34 fixed to the skewer which engages a rack 35 (FIGS. 2 and 3)extending along an upper edge of one of the side plates 13 of thesupporting framework. The simultaneous rotation of the skewers as theymove along the path of the conveyor makes it possible to brown the fooditem evenly while subjecting a meat, for example, to a self-bastingaction.

Preferably, the skewer stake 32 also carries indicia which may cooperatewith the indicia stationed along the path of travel of the conveyor. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 6, the skewer has a clip 36 holding an order slip37 indicating any of several data, such as the type of meat, degree towhich it is to be cooked, or customer table or name. In some cases it ispreferred to serve the food item with the skewer attached, as a kebab,for example. The skewer can, therefore, comprise a portion containingthe food that is adapted to be separated from the remainder of theskewer such as a gear 34. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the skewer isseverable at 38. A press-fitting sleeve 39 normally holds the two partstogether.

As shown in FIG. 7, the skewer may also be in the form of a basket 41when the food item cannot be conveniently held by impaling only. In thisembodiment, a skewer 42 passes through the open, wire basket having adoor panel 43 of like structure. A pair of tabs 44 are pivotallyconnected by pins 45 to the basket and hold the panel 43 in place whenturned to cover it as shown in FIG. 7. Collars 46 with set screws holdthe basket 41 in place on the skewer 42. The embodiment of FIG. 7 alsohas a turning gear 34 like the embodiment of FIG. 6, but the indicia inFIG. 7 which cooperate with the indicia along the conveyor is ofdifferent character. This embodiment has an indicia disc 47 which may belike that of FIG. 8 or FIG. 9. The disc 47a of the embodiment of FIG. 8uses only color indicia which correspond to the color indicia shown inFIG. 5. For example, one-half of the disc 47a is colored silver and theother half is colored gold. This disc therefore indicates that the meaton the skewer is beef that is to be or has been cooked to a well donestate. The disc of FIG. 8 can, if desired, be divided into still othercolor segments to indicate still further data.

The indicia disc 47b of FIG. 9 combines color, letters, and numericalindicia. The inner four quadrants 48 are lettered W," MW, MR, and R withcorrespondingly colored backgrounds as indicated and described inconnection with FIG. 5. If desired, either the letters or the colorsalone can be used. A short pointer 50 pivoted to the disc can be placedin any quadrant to indicate a selection. Around the outer circumferenceof the disc of FIG. 9 there are areas 51 numbered 1 through 9. Thenumbers can designate, for example, a customer or table number. Apointer 52 pivoted to the disc can be placed in the area of any selectednumber. The data communicated by the disc of FIG. 9 is that the fooditem is to be or has been cooked to a medium rare state and is to bedelivered to table, customer, or seat number 6. Alternatively, the colorbackground of the roasting, or broiling and basting of many other fooditems such as fowl, fish, sausages, weiners, corn-on-thecob,'and thelike. Similarly, meat can be in various forms such as hamburgers,steaks, strips pieced together, etc.

Preferably, when a series of like food items is to be cooked to order,the items are similarly sized to be substantially equal in weight andshape as a further aid to uniform results. After the conveyor chains 21are moving at a substantially constant rate of travel and the rocks 26are radiating a substantially constant intensity of heat, the apparatusis ready for use. A food item is gree. Several of the units of thepresent invention may be used, such as in a restaurant, each operatingat a different rate of translation. This enables several people in oneparty to obtain their food at about the same time, even though onewished his food well done and the other ordered it rare.

Each modification may be used alone or in combination with one or moreof the other modifications. Although the foregoing describes severalpresently preferred embodiments of the present invention, it isunderstood that the invention may be practiced in still other formswithin the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for cooking sequentially supplied food items comprising aconveyor adapted to support and carry the food items along apredetermined path to a discharge station, means to move the conveyor ata substantially constant rate along said path, a heat source ofsubstantially constant intensity mounted admounted on a skewer such asthe Skewers of 6 or jacent the conveyor and adapted to radiate heattoward FIG. 7, and the skewer then placed in opposed supports 24 on theconveyor C and at a selected distance from 1 the right-hand end of theconveyor as viewed in FIG. 1. The skewers rotate while they aretranslated along a conveyor and make a one-pass trip along the upperflight to be released from the supports 24 as the latter round thesprockets 20 at the downstream end. FIG. 3 represents this action. Theends of the skewers simultaneously leave the supports 24 and ride thesloping edges 14 aided by their momentum and gravity until they strikethe stop rods 15 or a previously discharged cooked item as illustratedin FIG. 2. The oven 30 keeps the food items warm until they are pickedup for servmg.

The skewers need not contain indicia of their own as long as they can beindividually identified. Since a number of cooked food items mayaccumulate over the warming oven 30, it is preferred that the skewershave identifying indicia, such as that illustrated by FIGS. 8 and 9.Such indicia not only aids a cook or chef in knowing where to place theskewer (according to the order), but also aids a waitress in knowingwhere the cooked food item is to be served after she has collected itfrom zone 2.

To illustrate a specific example, assume a waitress receives an orderfrom customer or seat 8 for a well done strip steak. She selects anindicia disc like that of FIG. 8 and places it over the end of theskewer having the proper-meat item. Or she may use the indicia disc ofFIG. 9 after moving pointer 50 'to W" and pointer 52 to 8. After notingthe indicia on the skewer, a chef waits until two aligned supports 24reach the BEEF and W" areas of FIG. 5 and then drops the skewer into thesupports. Even though this skewer may be mixed with other skewers havingdifferent food items differently cooked in collecting zone Z over theedges 14, the waitress can readily pick up her order and deliver it tothe proper customer.

The pre'sentinvention enables the consistent cooking of a'relativelylarge volume of food items over a relatively short period of time byreason of the continuous flow of the food items over a heat source ofsubstantially constant intensity. A minimum of labor is involved. Thespeed of translation along the conveyor and the heat provided by theheat source are correlated, so that by the time the food item reachesthe exit end of the conveyor, it has been cooked to a desired dethe fooditems on the conveyor over an appreciable length of said path, indiciastationed along the path indicating a plurality of predeterminedstarting points for the food items, said indicia correlating thedistance from said starting points to the discharge station with anidentifying characteristic of a food item first started on the conveyorat said predetermined starting points, and food-carrying means on saidconveyor for supporting said food items with respect to the conveyorhaving indicia cooperating with said indicia stationed alongsaid path.

2. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans includes skewer means adapted to receive and support said fooditems with respect to the conveyor.

3. The food cooking apparatus of claim 2 in which said skewer meanscomprises a spit adapted to pierce a food item.

4. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans are detachably mounted with respect to the conveyor.

5. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans is pivotally carried on the conveyor, and turning means along saidpath is adapted to engage and pivot the food-carrying means as saidmeans is carried by the conveyor.

6. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans comprises basket means adapted to contain a food item.

7. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans comprises a portion containing the food and adapted to beseparated from the remainder of the food-carrying means for serving withthe food item. 8. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which saidfood-carrying means is releasably mounted on the conveyor to receive andsupport said food items, said conveyor being adapted to release saidfood-carrying means at the discharge station, said discharge stationhaving means to collect said food-carrying means after its release fromthe conveyor.

9. The food cooking apparatus of claim 8 including a warming ovenmounted adjacent said discharge station to maintain a food item carriedby the collected food-carrying means in a warm condition prior to itsdistribution.

10. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said heat sourcecomprises refractory rocks disposed adjacent the conveyor, andfuel-fired burner means to heat the rocks.

11. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said identifyingcharacteristic of a food item so correlated by the indicia along saidpath is the extent to which it is cooked.

12. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said identifyingcharacteristic of a food item so correlated by the indicia along saidpath is an identification of the type of food item.

13. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said indicia of thefood-carrying means indicates a customer-identification of a food item.

14. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans has two sets of indicia, each cooperating with the indicia alongsaid path, one set cooperating with said path indicia to identify acharacteristic of the food item, and the second set of indiciacooperating with said path indicia to provide customeridentification ofthe food item.

15. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said indicia alongsaid path comprises color indicia, and said indicia of the food-carryingmeans comprises color indicia cooperating with said color indicia ofsaid path, predetermined color combinations of the two sets of indiciaserving to identify a characteristic of the food item.

16. The food cooking apparatus of claim in which said food-carryingmeans has two color indicia cooper ating with color indicia along saidpath, one color indicium on the food-carrying means indicating the typeof food item being cooked, and the other color indicium on thefood-carrying means indicating the extent to which said food item iscooked.

17. In the process of cooking sequentially supplied food items by movinga train of the items seriatim along a path past a heat source to adischarge point; the improvements comprising moving the food items at asubstantially uniform rate, maintaining the heat source at asubstantially constant intensity, marking indicia along said path atvarying distances from said discharge point to define a plurality ofpredetermined starting points for said food items, said indiciacorrelating the distance from said predetermined starting points to thedischarge point with a desired identifying characteristic of the fooditem, and introducing a food item into said train at a starting pointhaving an indicium indicating a characteristic desired for said fooditem.

18. The process of claim 17 including providing said food items withindicia having a cooperating relation with said indicia along said path.

19. The process of claim 18 in which said cooperating relation of theindicia indicates the extent to which a food item is cooked.

20. The process of claim 18 in which said cooperating relation of theindicia indicates the type of food item cooked.

21. The process of claim 18 in which said cooperating relation of theindicia indicates a customeridentification of the food item.

2. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans includes skewer means adapted to receive and support said fooditems with respect to the conveyor.
 3. The food cooking apparatus ofclaim 2 in which said skewer means comprises a spit adapted to pierce afood item.
 4. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which saidfood-carrying means are detachably mounted with respect to the conveyor.5. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said food-carryingmeans is pivotally carried on the conveyor, and turning means along saidpath is adapted to engage and pivot the food-carrying means as saidmeans is carried by the conveyor.
 6. The food cooking apparatus of claim1 in which said food-carrying means comprises basket means adapted tocontain a food item.
 7. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in whichsaid food-carrying means comprises a portion containing the food andadapted to be separated from the remainder of the food-carrying meansfor serving with the food item.
 8. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1in which said food-carrying means is releasably mounted on the conveyorto receive and support said food items, said conveyor being adapted torelease said food-carrying means at the discharge station, saiddischarge station having means to collect said food-carrying means afterits release from the conveyor.
 9. The food cooking apparatus of claim 8including a warming oven mounted adjacent said discharge station tomaintain a food item carried by the collected food-carrying means in awarm condition prior to its distribution.
 10. The food cooking apparatusof claim 1 in which said heat source comprises refractory rocks disposedadjacent the conveyor, and fuel-fired burner means to heat the rocks.11. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in which said identifyingcharacteristic of a food item so correlated by the indicia along saidpath is the extent to which it is cooked.
 12. The food cooking apparatusof claim 1 in which said identifying characteristic of a food item socorrelated by the indicia along said path is an identification of thetype of food item.
 13. The food cooking apparatus of claim 1 in whichsaid indicia of the food-carrying means indicates acustomer-identification of a food item.
 14. The food cooking apparatusof claim 1 in which said food-carrying means has two sets of indicia,each cooperating with the indicia along said path, one set cooperatingwith said path indicia to identify a characteristic of the food item,and the second set of indicia cooperating with said path indicia toprovide customer-identification of the food item.
 15. The food cookingapparatus of claim 1 in which said indicia along said path comprisescolor indicia, and said indicia of the food-carrying means comprisescolor indicia cooperating with said color indicia of said path,predetermined color combinations of the two sets of indicia serving toidentify a characteristic of the food item.
 16. The food cookingapparatus of claim 15 in which said food-carrying means has two colorindicia cooperating with color indicia along said path, one colorindicium on the food-carrying means indicating the type of food itembeing cooked, and the other color indicium on the food-carrying meansindicating the extent to which said food item is cooked.
 17. In theprocess of cooking sequentially supplied food items by moving a train ofthe items seriatim along a path past a heat source to a discharge point;the improvements comprising moving the food items at a substantiallyuniform rate, maintaining the heat source at a substantially constantintensity, marking indicia along said path at varying distances fromsaid discharge point to define a plurality of predetermined startingpoints for said food items, said indicia correlating the distance fromsaid predetermined starting points to the discharge point with a desiredidentifying characteristic of the food item, and introducing a food iteminto said train at a starting point having an indicium indicating acharacteristic desired for said food item.
 18. The process of claim 17including providing said food items with indicia having a cooperatingrelation with said indicia along said path.
 19. The process of claim 18in which said cooperating relation of the indicia indicates the extentto which a food item is cooked.
 20. The process of claim 18 in whichsaid cooperating relation of the indicia indicates the type of food itemcooked.
 21. The process of claim 18 in which said cooperating relationof the indicia indicates a customer-identification of the food item.